Interior Health has put out a call out to all healthcare workers ahead of the May Long Weekend asking anyone who can come in to work at Royal Inland Hospital to do so.
In an email to staff Friday morning, the health authority is asking anyone who is “willing to travel to work in Kamloops this weekend, and coming weeks” to respond.
“We are currently experiencing a shortage of staff at Kamloops- Royal Inland Hospital (RIH),” the email said. “To stabilize services over the May long weekend and coming weeks, we are looking for temporary redeployment of staff to RIH.”
“Interior Health Employees, especially registered nurses, Licensed Practical Nurses and Care Aides are needed.”
IH staff are entitled to time-and-a-half pay if they have to travel 40 kilometres or more to get to Royal Inland Hospital.
Speaking to NL News, Tracie Rannie, the Executive Director of Clinical Operations at RIH, called it “an extraordinary situation.”
“We work as one big team and we have a healthcare network, and so we work with out other hospitals very closely,” she said. “We’ve added in additional transport folks to assist and the other thing we look at is, how can we support the frontline workers and that may be by bringing in additional healthcare aides, porters, or cleaners.”
Rannie also tells NL they have contracted agencies to provide nurses – some from out-of-province – to care for patients at RIH, but she did not have an exact number of how many contract nurses are being used was unavailable.
In an email to NL News, an Interior Health spokesperson said the health authority works with five staffing agencies that bring in health care providers, some of whom may be from out of province.
“There is a contract in place with each agency and Interior Health that covers expenses and wages,” the statement said.
As for the callout for nurses, IH says there have been 20 confirmed so far, with more on the way.
Rannie says some of those workers who come to IH could be from hospitals in other communities.
“For each of those situations, employees that are looking to come assist, we would assess the situation and look at the impact for both sites, and then make a decision from there,” she said.
“We’ve done this before through the health authority when we’ve asked for assistance not only at Royal Inland but through the COVID, we did have very similar processes.”
Rannie also says additional patient transfer staff have also been scheduled this weekend
But she says moving patients to other IH facilities is not the first choice, saying those decisions are not made lightly.
Staff shortages at Royal Inland Hospital have been happening for some time, with Rannie saying it is due to COVID-19 as well as wildfires and flooding last fall. Kamloops councillors and MLAs have long been calling for help for exhausted healthcare workers at Royal Inland Hospital.
“We know staff are tired,” Rannie added. “They have gone above and beyond to support patient care and that’s something Kamloops needs to be proud of.”
“We have an incredible community. I am very grateful to the frontline staff, the medical staff and the community for their ongoing support and dedication.”
